Last Tuesday at the Inaugural Prayer Service in the USA, Reverend Mariann Budde looked down from the pulpit into the eyes of Donald Trump.  What came next was truly speaking truth to power:

Let me make one final plea, Mr. President.  Millions have put their trust in you and, as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God.

In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.  There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some who fear for their lives.  The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals.

They may not be citizens or have the proper documentation.  But the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurudwaras and temples. 

I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away.  And that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. 

Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land.  May God grant us the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love and walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people.  Good of all people in this nation and the world.

Amen

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Responses to Mariann’s words came swiftly:

A Radical Left hard line Trump hater [who] brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way.

I support Bishop Budde’s gospel message of unity at a time when our nation continues to be so deeply polarized.  Her heartfelt appeal to President Trump to show mercy toward the stranger and the vulnerable is not partisan politics, but the genuine witness of a pastor for her people.  Our people.  The people.

The person giving this sermon should be added to the deportation list.

The prophetic voice we desperately need right now

The only message Bishop Budde delivered through her unwelcoming and hypocritical words to the President was that the Episcopal Church’s motto of ‘All Are Welcome’ apparently doesn’t apply to the majority of Americans who voted for Donald Trump.

She is a valued and trusted pastor to her diocese and colleague to bishops throughout our church.  We stand by Bishop Budde and her appeal for the Christian values of mercy and compassion.

[The cathedral was] taken over by gay activists.

I commend her for appealing directly to the President, asking him to recognize the universal Christian principle, shared by many other faiths, that we are all God’s children.  Instead of taking this to heart, Trump responded with cheap personal insults – once again rebuking the principles of love, mercy and compassion.

The bishop used her sermon to target Trump and his policies.  The homily is supposed to be God’s words to the congregation, delivered through the minister.  Congregants expect to hear from heaven.  Instead, what was delivered could have been written by the Democratic National Committee.

Rather than disparage one of the most respected women in spiritual leadership in this country, it would be more appropriate for President Trump to reflect on her message of empathy, understanding and inclusion.

Blasphemous

What would Jesus think of Rev. Budde’s sermon and her pleading with Trump for compassion towards those who are in need or who are different?  That is what real Christians need to ask.

The Bible warns against false prophets, who are described as people who appear to be good but are actually harmful.  The Bible says that false prophets are dangerous and should be avoided.

It seems power and greed of our politicians are taking many churches away from the teachings of Jesus.  Humility and treating everyone equally are going by the wayside and judgment and a hardness are taking their place.  Those who are the most self-righteous in their Christianity are not really Christians at all.

I’m offended that she abused the pulpit to deliver her personal, partisan message to the President, rather than seeking God’s face and delivering His words to the entire congregation.

For Christians across the nation, the choice is clear: to follow the path of fear and exclusion or to embrace the Gospel’s call to love boldly, act justly and stand with the marginalized.  Bishop Budde chose the latter – and in doing so, she spoke for the majority of U.S. Christians.

Her platform as a religious leader demanded, to say the least, a more nuanced approach.

Hear me, you who devour the needy and annihilate the poor of the land!  (Amos 8:4)

She was given a great honor today, a chance to unify America around a Christian message at the dawn of a new administration.  Instead, she disgraced herself with a lecture you’d hear on CNN or an episode of The View.

I’ve heard people call her a “shrill, shrieking, lesbian feminazi”.  It’s absolutely baffling.  Did we listen to the same sermon?

Attended national prayer service today at the Washington National Cathedral during which Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde insulted rather than encouraged our great president

She’s a woman with short hair in a position they think only a man should hold, and she’s in an affirming church.  Drawing from their very limited knowledge about the world, and I cannot emphasize enough how truly limited that knowledge is, those three things tell them she must be a lesbian.

Shame on you Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde for your totally inappropriate disgraceful un-Christian behavior.

It is hatred against women that’s provoked such violent responses.  It happens any time a woman’s words go viral, especially when attached to a pulpit.  We have to reckon with the ways this country and its men hate women.  We women live with that hate daily.

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Reverend Budde laments “our tendency to jump to outrage and not speak to one another with respect.”

“I don’t feel there’s a need to apologize for a request for mercy”